Classism and health inequities: what the body remembers

Elizabeth McGibbon

Chapter 13 in Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health, 2025, pp 166-189 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Classism permeates all the other isms. Its reach deepens health inequities as it intersects across ableism, ageism, genderism, sexism, and racism, to name a few. While avoiding narratives that imply hierarchies of oppression, where one of the isms is seen as more salient than another, this chapter frames classism as a foundational structural oppression that can cut across all the other isms. First, the enduring social organization of class relations is discussed - classism is analysed as an outcome of ruling relations, including the power relations of class conflict that are endemic to capitalism. Using Scambler’s typology of asset/capital flows, working-class interruptions in these flows, across the lifecourse and intergenerationally, are described. Second, the oppression stress of classism is analysed in terms of how it becomes embodied - written into the body, held and corporally remembered. The chapter concludes with an overview of how class oppression is capitalism-induced structural violence.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Sociology and Social Policy; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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